Winthrop closes great chapter of its history despite unhappy ending

The 2024-25 Winthrop Eagles lost just one conference game at home while winning 23 games and finishing as Big South runners-up.  (Photo:  Winthrop Athletics)

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JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – The game clock read 15:34.

Fifteen minutes and 34 seconds separated the white-hot Winthrop Eagles from yet another NCAA bid – their third in nine seasons. Fifteen minutes and 34 seconds left to drain off the clock before the screaming, garnet-and-gold partisans behind the Winthrop bench could start making their travel reservations for Seattle, Denver, Providence, or whatever destination awaited. Fifteen minutes and 34 seconds before High Point and everyone in and associated with its program were left – again – to wonder what happened to another magical season.

It was all right there for the Eagles. Until it wasn’t.

Bobby Pettiford canned a three. Pettiford converted a layup. Terry Anderson converted a layup. Simon Hildebrandt tallied five quick points. Pettiford struck again. Trae Benham hit a three. Kezza Giffa made a bucket. Benham then converted another layup, which cemented a 21-4 run before six minutes had even elapsed. The party behind the Winthrop bench had turned to shock. High Point smelled blood in the water. The Eagles would never again lead.

An hour and a half later, after all the awards had been presented, the nets cut, and the celebrations completed, Winthrop coach Mark Prosser, forward Kelton Talford, and guard Bryce Baker entered the press room. Their eyes were red from tears. They were supposed to speak second – the spot reserved for the league champions.

Instead, Prosser sat down and said this:

“You’re welcome to ask questions about the game. We’ll talk about the game. My comments are going to be a celebration of this team. I don’t know that I’ve had this much fun coaching a group in 23 years of college coaching. They’re special people who proved every day what’s still good about college basketball. They’re tough, about the right things, loyal, committed to one another, connected – just a wonderful group of people who deserved this opportunity and deserved better than how it ended.”

“Our season, our individuals, our student-athletes that represented (us) so well are not defined by those last 12 minutes. They’re not defined in their careers by their last 10 minutes.”

You know how it ended. There’s a lot to unpack about how it started.

First, we should examine Talford’s case. The 6-foot-7 star from tiny, nearby Great Falls, S.C., became somewhat of a hometown hero. Talford’s father, Marion “Juicy” Talford, is part of the basketball fabric in this close-knit town. Juicy was KT’s assistant coach in high school, as the Red Devils beat Scott’s Branch and won a Class A state title. Talford then went on to be part of the most recent Winthrop team to win the Big South. Talford’s high school coach, Alex Fair, remembered the star who scored 25 points in his final game as a Red Devil and got even better 20 miles up the road.

“I just told him to keep grinding and to stay hungry and humble,” Fair said. “On March 7, 2020, he won a state championship and on March 7, 2021, he won a Big South championship.”

On March 9, 2025, Talford’s storied career as an Eagle ended. Prosser’s voice quivered as he recapped the all-Big South player’s significance in Rock Hill.

“He’s a special person from a special family. He’s a special student-athlete,” Prosser said. “That stuff doesn’t happen in college athletics these days. You don’t read a lot of stories about the guys that do that. You read a lot of stories about people chasing whatever it is. He sacrificed a lot to be part of this team again and to be in this position again. We had a few who did. They were joined by others who understood that they were joining something special. It’s part of why it was just such a special group. I think KT is probably the spearhead of that.”

Prosser said Talford could assess his meaning better than could he. Talford took a moment to do just that.

“Doing the same thing for five years with basically the same group of people just goes to show the type of program we have and what it’s built upon,” he began. “I’ve been a part of a lot of different teams here. Each one was different, but all were the same. The character that comes into the program – everybody on our roster, even those who didn’t play – the character those guys have and how easy it is to gel with those guys and how fast you become brothers with someone. I think that’s what Winthrop’s all about and why, in my five years, I’ve loved it here.”

Talford is not the only Eagle to depart after the season. Five additional Eagles have exhausted their eligibility. Talford, K.J. Doucet, Nick Johnson, Ryan Jolly, and Isaiah Wilson combined to produce nearly 61 of the team’s nearly 85 points per game in 2024-25. Kasen Harrison dished 26 assists in three tournament games. No returning Eagle started more than half the team’s games, with many of them not starting at all.

The other lingering issue centers around Prosser’s contract. The deal – as of the last public announcement – runs through June of 2026. This means that, barring a to-be-announced or yet-announced extension, Prosser will be in the final year of the deal he signed in 2021. There is no clear reason to think that the university would move on from Prosser — the Eagle boss had more wins in his first three seasons than all but Cliff Ellis and Gregg Marshall while winning one more than his friend and former boss, Pat Kelsey — but the looming contract issue is another concern for a staff that needs to replace so many stars.

Prosser loved his team’s potential before the season. The Eagles proved their coach correct, winning 23 games and 11 in conference play. Winthrop won 10 of its final 12, with the only two losses in that stretch coming to the eventual conference champs.

“As coaches, you think about the things – you think about the losses more than the wins,” Prosser said. “You think about the things that didn’t go well as much as you think about the things that did. I don’t know that we were doing anything special. I think we were playing the same version of basketball we’ve been playing.”

“Maybe the last couple of weeks – the last month or six weeks – we were a good version of ourselves. These kids were making plays and being connected out there, and we were able to build a lead (Sunday) that way.”

The closing speech Prosser gave to cap the 2024-25 season was not the same as the one he offered following the Eagles’ loss to 2024 champion Longwood in the quarterfinals.

“That was obviously not the conversation we were planning to have going in (to the game),” Prosser said after that game. “For our kids that wore that jersey for the last time, they deserved better. We’ll make sure that we’re working to not have this feeling that we’ve had the last two years again in the future.”

The task ahead for Prosser and his staff is a tall one. The portal allows the Eagles to quickly rebuild on the court, but rebuilding the culture for which Winthrop is known is a different conversation. If Prosser needs a reminder of the expectations at Winthrop, he need only look above his head from the Winthrop Coliseum floor.

“It’s been a few years here,” Prosser said. “When you don’t hang (a banner) in a couple years, they let you hear about it.”